A company that froze Lidl money last week has agreed to give the supermarket giant extra time to complete works at a site in Zebbug.
Central Business Centres PLC (CBC) said in a statement to the market that it has reached a “partial agreement” with Lidl following several meetings between the two parties.
CBC announced last week that it was registering a dispute with Lidl and holding money that the supermarket chain had deposited as a works guarantee. The dispute concerned Lidl’s alleged failure to deliver part of a Zebbug site to CBC, as agreed upon in a 2017 deal.
CBC had said it intended to use the frozen funds to complete works Lidl had failed to carry out and to offset damages it incurred due to the delays.
The site in question previously housed a Cortis Woodworks factory and Lidl was due to provide CBC – a sister company to the Cortis group – with an underground level while developing a supermarket at the site.
The supermarket opened in April and Lidl was due to complete the underground level and hand it over to CBC by Q3 2025.
In its statement on Monday, CBC said it has agreed to extend the bank guarantee for “another period, giving ample time to complete the works and to hand over part of the Zebbug property to the Company in accordance with the deed.”
Other issues that form part of the dispute between the two companies will be referred to arbitration, CBC said.
“In the light of this development the Company has halted its actions against Lidl,” CBC added.
Lidl has not commented publicly about the ongoing dispute. The company has 11 supermarkets across Malta and Gozo and is the country’s largest supermarket chain by market share.
CBC plc owns a number of properties used for commercial, warehousing and retail purposes. The company completed a new €13.25 million bond issue in December, using some of that new cash to complete the acquisition of the FXB building on Qormi’s Mdina Road.
CBC used that new bond issue to repay 2014 bondholders who chose not to roll over their investment into the new bond issue and to settle €3 million in unsecured callable notes it issued last year to finance the purchase of an Mrieħel office block.
